Ask Chris Simms, who on March 5 signed a contract with the Broncos expecting to be Jay Cutler’s backup.

After a whirlwind month in which Cutler’s feud with coach Josh McDaniels captivated the NFL world, Simms now finds himself with the chance to at least compete with Kyle Orton to be the Broncos’ starter.

“Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get unlucky,” Simms said Monday in his first interview with reporters in Denver. “In my case, maybe this time I got a little lucky, that’s for sure.”

If there’s anyone who could use some good football karma, it is Simms, who had to undergo emergency surgery to have his spleen removed after the organ was injured in the third game of the 2006 season. Simms briefly left the game, but returned, thinking he had bruised ribs.

“I was miserable and uncomfortable, but like I said, the thought of bleeding internally never really crosses your mind,” Simms said. “It was a long road back, but I made it, and I’m going to keep plugging away.”

He made his most substantial progress last season — playing in the preseason for Tampa Bay, despite a public feud with coach Jon Gruden, and then backing up Kerry Collins in Tennessee. He threw two passes in the Titans’ season finale, his first regular-season game since the injury.

Simms can’t help but be amazed at how the last month has unfolded. Until the trade Thursday that shipped Cutler to Chicago and added Orton to the Broncos’ roster, Simms was the No. 1 quarterback actually present at Dove Valley.

He has had three weeks to work closely with offensive coordinator Matt McCoy to start learning McDaniels’ offense and to familiarize himself with Denver’s wide receivers.

He’s shown enough to coaches in that time that McDaniels described Simms late last week as the “kind of guy we’re looking for.”

“He’s tough, he’s smart. He’s already knee-deep in the offense right now and learning more every day,” McDaniels said.

But will it be enough to upset Orton and win the starting job? Simms certainly has the football pedigree as the son of Super Bowl-winner Phil Simms, now color analyst for CBS.

The elder Simms has never been in the booth for a game his son has started. And if Chris Simms does win the job here this season, his father has already told the network he won’t do any of his games.

Simms was one of the nation’s top recruits as a high school senior in New Jersey and was named USA Today’s national offensive player of the year. He started 32 games in four seasons at Texas, where at times he thrilled Longhorns fans (with 26 touchdowns his senior year) and infuriated them (like when he was benched in the 2001 Big 12 title game loss to Colorado).

He slipped to the third round of the draft in 2003, when he was taken at No. 97 overall by Tampa Bay and Gruden. Simms became the Bucs’ starter midway through the 2005 season and led them to the playoffs. He won the starting job again in 2006 but struggled in an 0-3 start before suffering the injury to his spleen.

Now completely healthy — and without the chance of ever injuring his spleen again, he joked — he believes he can be a starter again here in Denver. And thanks to Cutler’s nasty and hasty exit, Simms will get the chance to at least try.

“Any time you come through an injury like I did, I’m grateful that I’m out here playing, there’s no doubt,” Simms said.

Crossing paths

The Broncos can’t manage to shake their connections to quarterback Brian Griese. Forget the whole idea of “six degrees of separation” — Denver’s new quarterbacks have close ties to the Broncos’ former starter, who played here from 1998-2002.

Kyle Orton: Orton and Griese were on the Chicago Bears’ roster in 2006 and 2007. Griese was the team’s No. 2 quarterback behind Rex Grossman in 2006 (Orton was No. 3) and part of 2007. Orton started the final three games of 2007 and won the starting job in 2008 over Grossman. Griese returned to Tampa Bay, where he was in training camp with … Chris Simms.

Chris Simms: Simms and Griese — sons of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks — overlapped in Tampa Bay in 2004 and 2005, and again during training camp last season. In 2005, Simms replaced Griese as the starter after Griese tore his ACL in Week 6, then helped the Bucs earn a playoff spot. Griese left after that season … to join Chicago, and Orton.

Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson had butterflies before Sunday's game against the Detroit Red Wings. It wasn't because of the big-name opponent, but rather his return from a 13-game injury absence and being stoked to rejoin a team in a playoff push and looking for its third postseason appearance in 10 years.